Breast cancer activists have won a battle against the site to publish photos
of survivors after surgery.

Facebook published its revised policy on mastectomy photos after an online petition from a woman with breast cancer received more than 21,000 signatures in a few weeks.

Scorchy Barrington, who has Stage IV breast cancer, created the petition when Facebook removed professional photos of young cancer survivors with their mastectomy scars from the SCAR project page.

The social networking site was strongly criticised for removing the photos based on their nudity policy, but the newly clarified guidelines mean that the images will remain online unless they show fully exposed breasts.

Facebook published a policy which read: "We agree that undergoing a mastectomy is a life-changing experience and that sharing photos can help raise awareness about breast cancer and support the men and women facing a diagnosis, undergoing treatment, or living with the scars of cancer. The vast majority of these kinds of photos are compliant with our policies."

Writing on Change.org, she said: "From now on, these powerful visual testaments to the real impact of breast cancer and the resilience of breast cancer survivors will be welcomed on Facebook, as they should be."

Theoretically, Facebook has always allowed mastectomy photos but Ms Barrington wrote on her blog that the policy was "so vague and ill-defined" that it provided little guidance to those responsible for removing offensive photos.

Earlier this month, Alison Schumer from Facebook's public policy and communications team said: "On occasion, we may remove a photo showing mastectomy scarring either by mistake, as our teams review millions of pieces of content daily, or because a photo has violated our terms for other reasons.

"We have been in touch with leaders of organizations that seek to promote greater understanding of, and support for, those who have had mastectomies."